Development of Medication Use Standards for Nursing and Midwifery Referral Service Units under the National Health Security System : Warm Community Nursing Clinics, Buriram Province.

Abstract

      This research and development study aimed to examine the situation and problems of medication use, to develop a medication use standard in terms of the knowledge, attitude, and drug selection of nursing and midwifery practitioners, and to evaluate the acceptance of the developed web application for drug-selection support. The study was conducted with 35 purposively selected practitioners in Warm Community Nursing Clinics, Buriram Province. Data were collected using a knowledge test, an attitude scale, a drug-selection assessment, and a web-application acceptance questionnaire, which passed content validity (mean IOC = 0.87) and reliability testing (KR-20 = 0.75; Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.91 and 0.87). The research was conducted from December 1, 2024, to October 30, 2025. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, and content analysis.

      The results revealed that the key situations and problems included dispensing medications beyond the legal scope of the facility, incomplete drug labeling and medication records, as well as scattered channels for drug-information retrieval that were difficult to search. After the development of the medication use standard, the sample’s knowledge scores increased from 8.57 to 9.29 and drug-selection scores increased from 3.80 to 5.89 (63.3% to 98.1%), both statistically significant (p < 0.001), while attitude showed no significant difference (p = 0.987), remaining at a moderate level (3.07 and 3.08). Acceptance of the web application for drug-selection support, “Ya Prajam Baan Prajam Jai,” was at the highest level (mean = 4.36).